Darkness lasted until eight in the morning; it dropped down again at five.

The frost crept deeper into the earth.
But construction advanced.

The dam of brush and uncemented smooth brown stones, stretching across the Pinas, was gradually rising.

The hillside section of ditch through the fields was finished and only the miners continued at the granite reef, the ring of their hammers on drills going steadily and the roar of the shots now and again booming out at nightfall.

Excavation went forward in the spaces between the drops on the ridge leading forth upon the mesa.